Alger Hiss convicted of perjury, Jan. 21, 1950

On this day in 1950, at the conclusion to a riveting trial, a federal jury found Alger Hiss, a former top-level State Department official, guilty on two counts of perjury — for lying about passing top secret government documents to Whittaker Chambers, a self-confessed ex-Communist and an editor at Time magazine, and for denying that he had ever seen Chambers since 1937.

The issues at the trial were overshadowed by a cleavage in the nation’s political culture between voices who raised fears of domestic communist subversion and those, like President Harry S. Truman, who saw the anti-communist crusade as a “red herring.” In defending Hiss, Secretary of State Dean Acheson saw him as a victim of Cold War hysteria.

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Hiss served nearly four years in prison — and unwaveringly maintained his innocence until his death in 1996, at age 92. Yet access to KGB intelligence files after the collapse of the Soviet Union strongly pointed to his guilt.

Hiss’ first trial for perjury in 1949 had ended in a deadlocked jury. Since the statute of limitations had run out, the government could not try Hiss for treason for allegedly being a Soviet spy before and during World War II, as Chambers had charged in 1948 before the Republican-led House Un-American Activities Committee.

When Hiss appeared before the committee, he denied all the charges and said he did not know Chambers. After the two men met later, however, Hiss admitted he knew him, but that Chambers had used a different name.